


Lethdor's Diary -- Draenor, part 1

by MaureenLycaon



Category: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor - Fandom
Genre: Reference to animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23143186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaureenLycaon/pseuds/MaureenLycaon
Summary: The mood at Lethdor's garrison in Draenor is grim. His allies are filthy barbarians, mana hunger is asserting itself, and they're marooned with no way home.





	Lethdor's Diary -- Draenor, part 1

**Author's Note:**

> (From Lethdor's diary: first dispatch from his garrison on Draenor.
> 
> Copyright disclaimer: the Warcraft universe and games belong to Blizzard Entertainment. Only the interpretation and these particular words belong to me, Maureen Lycaon. No copyright challenge intended.)

It's cold out here. Deathly cold like I haven't felt since Northrend. I wish they'd warned us about the cold.

My prized riding crane, Goldeneye, succumbed to the cold. Though I did my best to protect his bare legs and feet with furs, they became frostbitten anyway. Having him healed would only have condemned him to suffer and succumb again. The cold never lets up, never ceases. I mercy-killed him two days ago.

Thus, I now have only this riding wolf, gifted to me by the Azeroth orcs. The beast smells, but my early fears of fleas and ticks have proven unfounded. I have gone so far as to name him Numaz, after the Orcish fashion.

We still have no way back home. Yesterday, I finally risked trying to cast a portal to home, and damn the consequences if I was found out. I could not make the spell work. That human mage Khadgar can cast a portal here, but I can't. We're marooned, all right.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to go home. Never to see Silvermoon City again . . . Word has it that they're trying to set up portals back to Azeroth. Where, I do not know.

We're gradually recruiting people who can keep the place running from day to day. Without Faen, I wouldn't be able to manage. She's got more of a head for organizing people than I do. Most of them are these Frostfire orcs who smell strongly of the wolves they live with. They're courageous enough warriors, but they understand nothing of arcane magic. What little I've tried to do makes them very nervous.

Which brings me to the other problem: the craving. After the Sunwell was restored, I thought never to feel it again. But now I feel that drawing, weakening hunger deep inside every time I cast a spell. This world has arcane energy, I can feel it. But it seems too weak to slake my thirst. No, I had better not write any more about it. Thinking of it makes the hunger worse.

The construction of the garrison has to be done the old-fashioned way, without magic, and so most of it will be in the orcish style, without grace or beauty. For the first time in my life, I wish I'd taken the specialty of architecture instead of geology and the lapidary arts. Still, the peons have finished the construction of the outer palisade, and the buildings are well under way.

We're setting up a network of these little garrisons across Frostfire Ridge, hoping to keep the army organized and recruit the locals against the Iron Horde.

I've heard talk of this being another Draenor, whatever that truly means. When we went in, we only thought that this was yet another world -- one which, strangely, happened to have orcs. Aggressive orcs. Now the eerie similarities to Outland are impossible to deny.

What the fel has happened here? These orcs aren't fel-tainted, so why are they so hell-bent on destroying us? I recall Belida being upset by it after the first battle in the Blasted Lands. "Why won't they even talk?" she said, again and again, as she described the fight. "They're like gnolls."

I'm beginning to think that at some point, things happened differently here. Perhaps there was no Burning Legion, or the Burning Legion was not successful in tainting the orcs.

Since we can talk only with the Frostfire orcs now, who seem unaffected, we have no way to find out -- except to advance into enemy territory and perhaps take some prisoners. Maybe some scouts and spies can help, if they can work in such a different world.

Could it be that there are alternate worlds, perhaps even alternate Azeroths, where things happened a little differently? Perhaps even an infinite number of worlds? The thought makes my head hurt.

I can't help but suspect that the appearance of the Timeless Isle is connected to this. Think about it: first, an island that floats through time and space comes to rest just off the coast of Pandaria, an island where time stands still. Then, rumors of odd doings at the trial of Garrosh. And now the Dark Portal opens to a different Draenor, and we can't reach Outland any more. (I wonder how many people who were stationed there are now cut off.)

Every time I look outside and see the endless, frigid wastes broken only by ogre ruins and the occasional volcanic vent, I feel almost sick with longing for lush hills and forests. Curse it, Pandaria has made me weak.

I suspect that I see the same loneliness, the same sense of utter loss, in the faces of my few fellow Sin'dorei here.

My greatest comfort, other than Faen, is geology. The garrison adjoins a few lava vents, and I've made some cautious investigations. I can't yet make sense of the geology, to be honest. Perhaps Azerothian rules don't apply here. It's a fascinating puzzle. I saw nothing like this in Outland, where the only active volcanism is in Shadowmoon Valley.

I wonder what Shadowmoon Valley looks like in this Draenor . . . if it has one.

All my life seems to have been losing what I had, again and again. My family, wiped out by the Scourge while I was away. Now, I've lost the world of Azeroth.

I cannot further burden Faen with these thoughts. They will remain in my private diary.

I have no idea how this will end, if it does.


End file.
